Logistics
When goods change transport mode
Lorry, ship, train, lorry again. Nothing breaks during the journey: it breaks where it changes hands.
A shipment combining modes looks like a single journey from outside: it leaves your warehouse and reaches its destination. Inside it is three or four separate contracts, each with its own rules, and the goods cross from one to the next in a few minutes that almost nobody documents.
Where the chain breaks
| Point | What happens there | What is nearly always missing |
|---|---|---|
| Initial loading | It is counted and sealed | Photos of the condition and the seal |
| Each transhipment | The responsible party changes | Evidence of condition at that moment |
| Intermediate storage | The goods wait for days | Who held them and under what conditions |
| Final delivery | It is opened and damage appears | The comparison with how it left |
Important
The second row is where claims are lost: **if nobody records the condition at each change of hands, damage can only be attributed to the journey as a whole**. And damage belonging to everyone belongs to nobody: each carrier will say, fairly, that it reached them like that. What makes a leg claimable is a photo and a signature at that leg's handover — thirty seconds that can only be spent then.
What to settle before it leaves
- 1
Who organises the whole and who answers for each leg
Not always the same, and that difference matters when there is damage.
- 2
Which document accompanies each leg
Each mode has its own and they do not substitute for one another.
- 3
How the consignment is identified across all of them
If the number changes each leg, it cannot be followed.
- 4
And where the condition record lives
Even one photo per leg, in the same file.
Watch out
The costliest confusion is about who answers: **whoever sells you the whole transport is not always who answers for each leg**, and compensation limits change with the mode where the damage happened. When you cannot prove which leg it occurred on, the argument is not about who pays: it is about which regime applies, which can mean very different amounts. Knowing where it happened is often worth more than knowing how.
When damage shows on opening
Worth knowing
Which convention or regime applies to each leg, what limits it carries and within what period you must claim depends on the mode, the route and the contract. **Your freight forwarder or adviser settles that**; here it is about keeping what will show where it happened.
›Can I ask for a record at each transhipment?
You can agree it with the organiser; it is not always offered as standard.
›Are phone photos any use?
Very much so: what matters is that the identifiable load and the moment are visible.
›What if the damage only shows on unpacking?
Photograph and notify anyway: the clock starts at delivery.
A real case
The situation
A company claims for damage on a three-leg shipment and no carrier accepts responsibility.
What you do
- Photographs the load at each change of hands and files it all together
What you get
The next damage is pinned to one specific leg, which is what makes a claim move.
The situation
Damage appears and nobody knows which leg it happened on.
What you do
- Records the condition at each change of mode
What you get
You can narrow down where it occurred.
The situation
Documentation changes with the mode and nobody reviews it.
What you do
- Checks what is missing before each handover
What you get
The gap is caught before the delay.
The situation
One leg is run by an operator with their own system.
What you do
- Collects and stores what they provide
What you get
Your own archive stays complete.
The situation
A client asks where their shipment is.
What you do
- Checks the file with the recorded handovers
What you get
You answer with what exists rather than with a phone call.
The situation
Days pass with no news and nobody raises the alarm.
What you do
- Warns when a shipment has gone too long without movement
What you get
Silence stops being mistaken for normality.
This article answers
- combined transport documentation
- damage on a multi-leg shipment
- who is liable at transhipment
- goods moving by lorry and ship